


The janitor's office is locked for a reason

by Mjus



Series: Iru-jan [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Slice of Life, iruka has a bad day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-10
Updated: 2020-01-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:34:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22202692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mjus/pseuds/Mjus
Summary: Some days it's just too much and you have to sit down and cry.
Series: Iru-jan [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1598209
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	The janitor's office is locked for a reason

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone. Some of you may have read "Half-blind double-date with extra company". I've tried and failed to write a sequel, so I thought I'd make a prequel and see what happens... that's up you you, dear readers :)

After three months, Umino Iruka was slowly getting used to the routine at school, as well as her so called office. It wasn’t an office at all though. In truth it was nothing but a storage room. Apparently the school had had to rebuild a little soon after she started and the janitor’s room had become an extra classroom where the teachers could hold extra classes for struggling students. Not that it was actually used, and even the vice principal had questioned the change.

Iruka had simply pulled her shoulders back, ignored the teacher –some asshole named Danzo who seemed to be against women in general– and moved into the storage shed where she also kept all of her tools. Pulling some favours she managed to get help to install electricity and water so she got have the bare minimum of luxuries in the form of proper light, a microwave and a water boiler plus a sink. She also managed to fit a tiny table, a chair and a cabinet where she kept her paperwork and a change of clothes.

The vice principal had visited her once and abashedly apologized Iruka had had to arrange herself like this because two was a tight crowd in the shed with everything else stacked in there.

“I’m not angry, Tsunade-san. I’ll roll with the punch this time since I really need the job, but I hope you’ll support me when I request the principal give me a proper office. It would be better for all involved if you didn’t have to cross the entire school in search of me if there’s an emergency.”

Tsunade had agreed, but thus far nothing had happened.

 _‘Rolling with the punches indeed,’_ Iruka sighed as she headed to the storage room to have lunch. Today was just not her day at all.

This morning her car had just said “no”. It sputtered and died and that was that. Iruka had left it with a pat on the hood and a prayer it wouldn’t kill her economy to have it fixed and had run to school, cursing the fact she’d put on jeans. Then her period had started. Right at the last stretch to school. She was not wearing those jeans back home.

And if that wasn’t enough for today, when Iruka reached her office/shed to finally have some privacy and food, it was unlocked.

Iruka had already unzipped the overalls she wore, underneath it nothing but a black sports bra. She forgot all about that and threw the door open, ready to kill whoever had dared to invade her space.

“You two have five seconds to get the hell out.”

The two in question were boys, and later Iruka would be crying in relief there hadn’t been anything going on but would still clean the entire shed with alcohol.

The first one was a brunette with dark eyes, holding Iruka’s cup which was steaming. So they had clearly made themselves right at home.

“Um…”

“That’s five. GET OUT!”

The boys shrank away, backing up which was the wrong way to go and Iruka just snapped. She reached forward, tore her cup out of the boy’s hand, smashed it down on the table, splashing hot tea over her hand before she grabbed both boys by their necks and physically threw them out.

“AND DON’T COME BACK!!!”

Then she slammed her door shut and locked it. Leaning back against the door, the emotions simply overwhelmed Iruka and she started sobbing. It was one of those days when she couldn’t stand it. Everything just went wrong and she lost control. Between broken dreams, lost friends, her parents killed, a miscarriage and overall feeling like the biggest failure in history, Iruka had cry-days. And she couldn’t even go to the pool because of her period.

Unfortunately she still wasn’t finished preparing the football and soccer fields for the games happening later in the week. She at least had to do that before she could call in sick and go home so she could get drunk and cry until she could put the pieces of herself together into something that resembled her.

The bell rang, and Iruka knew she had to get up and out and do her job. It’s not like anyone cared about a janitor anyway. It paid the bills and that was that.

Standing up to grab the cup, Iruka realized it had cracked and lay in two halves. Well, at least those weren’t expensive. It still caused a new wave of hot tears, she was that close to breaking. Pinching the bridge of her nose the woman took deep breaths, forcing the grief back down under a lid of focused determination to get her work done.

She hadn’t eaten anything. She’d have to bring her lunch back home and eat it there, hoping she could stomach it.

Iruka wiped her face with the rough sleeves of her overall and stepped outside, just to fight down the next wave of emotion.

“Blasted kids broke the lock too!” she snarled.

Thinking fast, Iruka looked around. What did she have to use as a quick solution? A big rock? Too easy to move aside. But she did have a plank in the shed, and a loop of string.

Swallowing as much as she could of the anger over the humiliation, Iruka got everything and went about making the door as difficult as possible to open. She looped the string over the plank, tucked that underneath he handle and looped the string around that in turn. She was about to kick in a piece of brick between the plank and door on the ground when someone cleared their throat.

Huddling close together with their heads between their shoulders, stood the boys Iruka had found inside her office.

“The bell rang, go to class,” Iruka said. She really couldn’t deal with this right now.

“Um…”

The janitor kicked the brick with a lot more force than necessary, wedging it in so hard she’d probably have a hard time getting it out herself, and the teens flinched.

“We’re sorry! We thought the old janitor…”

“The one who quit almost three months ago?” Iruka snarled as she checked the plank was firmly in place. “Go to class before I report you.”

“You can’t do that.”

Iruka gave them both a very cold look. “After breaking and entering _and_ breaking my things while you’re at it? Yes. I. Can.”

The former swimmer started to stride away in the direction of the stadium, feeling the anger mix with regret at her own harshness. She was normally more level-headed.

“OPEN!”

Startled, Iruka spun around, thinking the punks had broken into her office the moment she turned her back. But several feet behind her stood one of the boys, this one blond, with a red face and pointed awkwardly at his chest.

“It’s open.”

Iruka blinked and looked down. “Oh.” She hadn’t pulled the zipper of the overalls back up, and it had opened further. “Thank you,” she muttered, pulled it up and strode off as fast as she could, wiping at her tears that were once again overflowing, but this time it was because someone had shown her consideration, however minimalistic it was.

* * *

It was Friday. Iruka was back at work, by foot because her car-battery had died and she couldn’t afford a new one, which meant the car was worth more being sold for scraps. It was okay. Iruka just had to get up earlier to get to school in time and take the bus on the days she wanted to go to the pool. Maybe she could use the money she got for the car on more proper gear suited for running outside. Proper shoes weren’t cheap.

The silver lining of the day was that Tsunade-san had made sure to install a new lock to her office. Iruka would still bet her kidneys on that asshole Danzo sending Iruka the bill with the claim she should pay for it herself.

Sighing, Iruka went inside and changed. The hedges around the school needed pruning, the grass needed trimming, she had to check the sports area and so on and so forth. So she went on with her day, going to the soccer ground first.

When the lunch bell rang, Iruka went to her office shed. She couldn’t work when the students were out and about, no matter how much of a shadow in the background she was. And those who did notice her? They went out of their way to prank her, as if she thought redoing all she’d done was fun or liked the extra hours she had to pull. So Iruka stayed away.

Outside the shed stood one student knocking on the door while another was peeking through the window.

“I don’t think she’s here today either,” the boy at the door muttered, sounding disheartened.

“Can I help you?”

Both teens jumped around, startled. The kid by the door had very blue eyes and blond hair sticking out in every direction. The other had brown hair, just as wild.

“Um…”

Iruka blinked, recognizing that sound from somewhere… “Oh, you’re the ones from the other day. I see someone taught you to knock while I was gone.”

Both teens’ faces lit up in a bright shade of red.

“Are you…” the blond started in a mumble, but then gritted his teeth and straightened, staring Iruka straight in the eye. “Are you okay now?”

Having not at all expected that, or the look of concern and hint of fear, Iruka took a few seconds to answer. “I’m fine? Why?”

Losing his nerve, the teen looked away. “Um, the other day…”

“I’m really sorry!” the other boy blurted and pushed a little package at Iruka. “My sister said the shed… I didn’t know you used it as a break room.”

“I’m not ‘using it as’, I have no choice. The teachers decided they didn’t want me in the main building,” Iruka frowned, accepting the package with some confusion, looking curiously at it. “So it is my break room, and office.”

“Huh? Why would you need an office?” the blond asked.

“Same reason anyone doing maintenance needs one,” the janitor said and unlocked the shed. “What’s this?” she asked, holding up the package she still hadn’t moved to open. Not because she really thought it was a prank anymore, the teens weren’t trying to cover up any hints of glee, but Iruka was still suspicious.

The brunette blushed, his head sinking down between his shoulders as he pulled at the hem of his shirt. “A teacup,” he muttered.

Surprised once again, Iruka opened the package to find just that. With a cartoony dog-print on it. To be honest, she’d forgotten she’d broken her teacup.

“How… sweet of you,” she said around a smile, holding back a laugh at the ridiculous print.

“So are you… really okay now?” the blond asked. “I’m really sorry about the other day. We really didn’t mean to upset you.”

Sighing and putting the present down, Iruka unwrapped her lunch and put it in the microwave. “I was upset,” she answered. “But that wasn’t all your fault. Honestly, I’m sorry I yelled at you.”

The teens looked up, equally surprised but eyes still glinting with hope.

“So you didn’t cry because we broke in here?!”

“Yes I did.”

The kicked-puppy looks returned.

“That day I…” Iruka started just as the microwave dinged. “I was under a lot of stress that day and came here hoping to pull myself together. Wouldn’t you be upset if you suddenly found strangers making themselves at home in your room?”

“I don’t have my own room,” the brunette said, but the blond made a face as if he could relate.

“I suppose you have too many siblings and too small a house then,” Iruka said as she sat down with her lunch. “Either way, I was upset, but in hindsight I should probably have been able to handle the situation better if I had had any sort of control. Like I said; I didn’t mean to yell at you.”

The boys fidgeted as Iruka ate. She wasn’t going to ask them to come in and join her if that’s what they were waiting for.

“Actually,” the brunette started, “you may know someone from my family? My name is Inuzuka Kiba.”

“Oh, the ones people call the Dog Family?”

“Yeah,” the boy said with a face that said it had once been painful to accept. “And my older sister goes here too. We’re freshmen this year, and sis said the old janitor used to keep treats in here for students.”

Those words caused a tidal wave of fury to wash over Iruka, forcing her to take a deep breath. The former janitor had made a grand show of being a good guy. It made people lenient and more willing to turn a blind eye to the fact he’d been shamelessly abusing the system and openly breaking rules clearly stated in his contract.

Lazy bastard who Iruka now had to clean up after because the school was on the verge of disrepair when she got the post. And nobody would thank her for it.

“And did your sister also tell you stories of how students attacked each other or their teachers with gardening tools?”

“Huh? Yea, once but…”

“And that right there is why this shed is _locked_!” Iruka yelled and stood up. “There are things in here that you could hurt yourself on and hurt others with or without meaning to. Asshole! If I ever get my hands on him I’ll…” the janitor trembled as she made a herculean effort to _not_ break anything.

“Sorry, janitor!”

The woman looked up at the two now trembling teens.

“It’s Iruka. You’re forgiven this time, because you apologized. Now go have lunch before the bell rings.”

“Y…yes. Thank you, eh… Iru-jan?”

Iruka looked up with surprise and her mouth full of food.

“Because you’re Iruka the janitor,” the blond said with a shy, but happy smile.

“Sure. Now go before I change my mind.”

The teens left, barely remembering the close the door behind them, and Iruka was left staring at the new teacup she’d received.

“Good Lord, those two are going to hang around from now on, aren’t they?” she said to nobody, but somehow, she found herself smiling.


End file.
